NEW YORK Nov 9 (Reuters) - Now that new medicines promise
to cure millions of hepatitis C patients in coming years,
drugmakers including Gilead Sciences Inc are turning their
attention to other liver diseases, with a potential market that
could rival the success of statins, which generated more than
$30 billion a year in sales at their peak.

Several companies are working on treatments for hepatitis B,
which can be controlled but not yet cured, and for fatty liver
conditions caused by rising obesity, which without treatment
could affect half of all Americans by 2030, according to the
American Liver Foundation (ALF). Some of the drugs will address
advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis, which are the scarring that
virtually all liver diseases cause without effective treatments.
Each of these drugs, once approved, could reach annual sales of
as much as $10 billion, industry analysts said.

Most of the treatments are now in early Phase I or Phase II
clinical trials, with more informative interim data on several
expected over the course of the next year.

Gilead, which was first to market with its
hepatitis C cure Sovaldi late last year and has been racking up
about $3 billion in sales each quarter, is a solid bet to be
among the leaders in the next wave of liver therapies, experts
said.

"The Gilead program is encouraging," said Dr. Naga
Chalasani, director of gastroenterology and hepatology at
Indiana University Hospital in Indianapolis, who is
participating in clinical trials of promising drugs from Gilead
and others.

Drugmakers are working to address the fatty liver disease
known as NASH, or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Without
treatment, NASH can progress to liver-destroying cirrhosis and
potentially cancer.

ALF estimates that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,
including NASH, affects up to 30 percent of people in the United
States. It can be caused by bad diets and alcohol abuse, and has
also been tied to diabetes.

"We have no treatment for that condition other than tell a
patient they need to lose weight," said Dr. Mauricio
Lisker-Melman, director of the hepatology program at Washington
University School of Medicine in St Louis.
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